Pop Culture Hot List

SI Staff | Nov 25, 2008

Pop Culture Hot List /

Pop Culture Hot List

Jimmy Connors

Jimbo is still getting in trouble after all these years. The legendary tennis player was arrested while standing in the ticket line at UC Santa Barbara for a basketball game. After getting into a "heckling situation," Connors, according to his manager, was told to leave, but couldn't because he came in a cab. Connors then told the cops he would stand outside until the game was over and leave with his son. The cops didn't buy the story and popped him for being "a non-student refusing to leave the campus."

Michael Phelps

So that was the "Entourage" cameo we were told about back in September? E bumping into Phelps on the streets of New York for a quarter of a second and Phelps looking more confused than he normally does after getting brushed. Well, going by Phelps' appearance on "Saturday Night Live," maybe all his future cameos should be that short.

Boris Becker

This wasn't a good week for old school tennis players. Becker was dumped by his fiancée, Sandy Meyer-Woelden, via text message. "To make sure how serious she was, she sent me five others saying the same thing," said the 40-year-old former Wimbledon champion. "I was completely surprised."

Dino Morea and Lara Dutta

India's version of Brad and Angelina were sitting courtside Sunday for the Lakers-Kings game and visited the Lakers' practice the next day, during which Kobe Bryant presented both with personalized jerseys. Dutta, a former Miss Universe, returned the favor by offering Bryant a role in her next film, saying she would teach him how to do one of her famous Bollywood dance numbers. "I don't know about that," said Bryant, shaking his head. "I don't think you want to see me dance."

Barry Bonds

Finally, Bonds is getting an endorsement deal. Too bad it's with a rifle company that shows video and pictures of him killing deer in the wild with his new favorite product. "With this super wide whitetail closing in, the only thing I had to worry about was putting the crosshair on the front shoulder, and the rifle would do the rest," said Bonds. "One blast is all it took and I left Canada with an amazing whitetail." Yes the whitetail had about as much chance against you and your snazzy rifle as you and your roided records do of ever making the Hall of Fame.

Jerry Rice and Steve Young

Young and Rice teamed up again, this time on the "Biggest Loser" for a special Thanksgiving episode in which they put the contestants through some fast-paced NFL-style drills and give one lucky winner a trip for four to Hawaii. "I told Jerry that it seemed like training camp out there," Young told me. "It really is for these guys on the show. Jerry and I, coming in, thought we should be careful and not push them too hard, but it became very clear, very quickly that they're used to getting pushed, they like it and want to get better." Let's just hope that this doesn't mean Young will now follow Rice's lead and try his hand at "Dancing with the Stars."

Misty-May Treanor

Treanor (left) re-united with teammate Kerri Walsh in Hollywood this week to film a Super Bowl commercial after "beginning to hobble or whatever you want to call it" for the first time since she ruptured her left Achilles' tendon while on "Dancing with the Stars." "I want to hit myself every time I watch the show because I still want to be out there," Traenor told me. "Hopefully I can come back another season. I want to complete what I started." With Traenor out, she's going with another athlete to win the competition this year. "I like Warren [Sapp]," she says. "He's a great guy and a big teddy bear." Yes, a big, angry, controversial teddy bear that you don't ever want to cross.

Carmelo Anthony

With the Lakers and Clippers out of town, Anthony and the Denver Nuggets took over Hollywood last Thursday night. Anthony threw a star-studded party at a popular studio to celebrate the launch of his Jordan Melo M5 basketball shoe. As Anthony, Chauncey Billups, J.R. Smith and Kenyon Martin manned a private booth next to the dance floor below DJ AM, they greeted the likes of Mena Suvari, Ciara, Khloe Kardashian, Tyrese Gibson and Mekhi Phifer. Not surprisingly, the Nuggets lost to the Lakers the next night, 104-90. But, hey, at least they partied hard.

Gilbert Arenas

Arenas became just the third NBA player (after Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal) to be sculpted from wax by Madame Tussauds. Yao Ming will unveil his own figure shortly. "When they told me I was the third, I said, 'Third this year or third ever?' I was like: 'Why me? I haven't done anything special to be the third.'" Wizards fans, who have yet to see the injured Arenas play a single game this season after he signed a $111 million contract in the offseason, are probably saying the same thing.

Donovan McNabb and Andy Reid

If the Eagles had an experienced quarterback behind McNabb, it would have made sense to throw him into the fire in Baltimore and see if he could save the season, but did Andy Reid really think Kevin Kolb, who had thrown nine career passes for zero touchdowns and one interception, would suddenly slice up the Ravens' defense with no practice? The bonehead move, combined with McNabb's struggles, likely signal the end of Reid's and McNabb's 10 years in Philadelphia.

Published Nov 25, 2008

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